UN Climate Summit 2020: UK priorities and preparations

Published Thursday, September 5, 2019

A debate on the UN climate summit 2020: UK priorities and preparations was scheduled to be held in Westminster Hall on 10 September 2019 at 2:30pm, led by Caroline Lucas MP. Following prorogation of Parliament on 9 September, this debate will no longer go ahead.

Background

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted during the 1992 Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It entered into force in 1994 and has been ratified by 196 States (including both the EU and the UK) which constitute the “Parties” to the Convention. The objective of the Treaty, set out in article 2 of the Convention, is to “stabilize greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system.”

UK’s bid for COP26

Under the UN rules, COP26 will be held in a European country. The UK has bid for COP26 presidency in 2020, in partnership with Italy. Building on previous proposals, the UK has offered to host the COP and Italy the pre-COP event. Turkey has also bid to host COP26.

If the UK is successful, it is expected that the conference will take place at Glasgow’s Scottish Events Campus at the end of 2020.